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Understanding the Key Ingredient

Bismillah.

If you ever ask any person, no matter where he comes from, what does he think of good health and strength, he will definitely say that they are a blessing and a gift. However, the truth is that they are a blessing only when accompanied by a key ingredient. Without that they are a curse. Read on to find out what that key ingredient is and how does its accompaniment affect one’s health and strength.

[Roughly translated:]When Allah gives health and strength accompanied by His mercy, then it is a blessing and (gives) a pure life, and he gets pleasure from life. And when He holds His mercy, then the health and strength are a calamity, Allah inflicts it upon the healthy and strong. So he spends his health and strength in that which smashes the body and corrupts the spirit and gathers evil for the Day of reckoning.

Key ingredient: rahmah (mercy).

Have you ever seen people who are very healthy and strong yet are hollow? Their hearts are empty of contentment? Could the reason possibly be that they use that good health in acts of disobedience to Allah?

Let’s break it down to make it as simple as it could get.

Imagine the following four situations:

Situation 1

A person is very healthy and strong. He does acts of disobedience to Allah. Since he has an abundance of health, he disobeys easily and is very good at it. Those acts of disobedience could be anything. For example, he watches a lot of useless videos or he backbites a lot or he goes to night clubs. A healthy person would be more active and would do all this effortlessly. His heart becomes corrupt and dead. He steers far away from Allah.

Key ingredient (rahmah): absent.

Situation 2

A person is sick and weak. He can’t do what he wants to do. He just doesn’t have the strength. So he complains to Allah all the time. He blames his fate. He breeds negativity inside him each day. Therefore, he gets far away from Allah.

Key ingredient (rahmah): absent.

Situation 3

A person is healthy and strong. He obeys Allah to the best of his ability. His good health and strength help him in doing good deeds. He stands in night prayer, he helps the poor and orphans, he has a good conduct towards everyone (being on your best behavior is easy when you’re well) etc. Through his good acts, he grows closer to Allah each day.

Key ingredient (rahmah): present.

Situation 4

A person is weak and unwell. He doesn’t have the strength to do extra good deeds or even bad deeds, for that matter. He asks Allah for His forgiveness. He believes that whatever Allah has decreed for Him, is indeed for his good. He thanks Allah everyday, even though he feels physically sick. He feels grateful that his sickness would cause his sins to be forgiven. He grows closer to Allah.

Key ingredient (rahmah): present.

From the above situations, it is clear that rahmah is the thing that is most important, not just health or any other blessing. So how do you attain His rahmah?

There are various ways for that but let’s look at some examples from the Quran.
Allah says,

“And obey Allah and the Messenger that you may obtain mercy.” [Al-i-Imran 132]

“And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself but then seeks forgiveness of Allah will find Allah Forgiving and Merciful.” [An-Nisa 110]

“So those who believe in Allah and hold fast to Him – He will admit them to mercy from Himself and bounty and guide them to Himself on a straight path.” [An-Nisa 175]

We could go on and on with the ways that attract His rahmah, but the ones mentioned above pretty much sum up what we’re supposed to do. May Allah grant us with His immense rahmah and keep on granting it every moment of our lives till our last breath. Ameen.

“Peace be upon you. Your Lord has decreed upon Himself mercy: that any of you who does wrong out of ignorance and then repents after that and corrects himself – indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful.” [Al-An’am 54]